The awful circumstances surrounding the death of Henry Nowak in December last year have raised the profile of approaches to policing in the UK again this summer. Nowak’s identity, and that of his killer, inspired the usual claims from public figures, chief among them Nigel Farage, that white people like Henry are discriminated against in favour of those from ethnic minorities like Henry’s murderer, Vickrum Digwa. Such commentators often evoke the ‘justified concerns’ of the public to support their claims.
The original ‘justified concerns’
In October 1916, the Prussian Ministry of War conducted the now notorious Judenzahlung (“Jew Count”), a census intended to gauge the participation of German Jews in the war effort.
Needless to say, this development resulted from a belief held by many patriotic right-wing Germans: that the dastardly Jew was not pulling his weight for the Fatherland in its hour of need.
The relevant passage of the edict authorising the census read as follows:
“The War Ministry is continuously receiving complaints from the population that large numbers of men of the Israelite faith who are fit for military service are either exempt from military duties or evading their obligation to serve under every conceivable pretext. According to these reports, large numbers of Jews in military service are also said to have obtained assignments in administrative or clerical posts far away from the front lines, either with the rear echelon or in the homeland.”
Doesn’t this sound familiar? Vague, unsubstantiated concerns based on anecdote and hearsay – call it prejudice if you prefer – were presented as legitimate simply because they were deeply felt by certain aggrieved parties. That alone was enough for the Prussian Ministry of War to take action.
The survey ultimately found no evidence that German Jews were shirking their patriotic duty. Indeed, relative to their share of the population, they appeared to be slightly over-represented in military service. Yet these findings did not matter. The fact that such a survey was deemed necessary lent credibility to the original suspicion. Years later, when the Nazis promoted their absurd ‘stab-in-the-back’ myth, all that mattered was that many Germans still believed they had ‘justified concerns’ about the Jews.
A familiar pattern
We have experienced something akin to this in recent days. Following a tragic murder that was mishandled by the arresting officers, the Reform party has concluded that the appropriate response is outrage at a police force supposedly favouring black people at the expense of white people through what Farage calls “two-tier policing”. We are invited to infer that the common white man cannot expect justice while a black man will receive special treatment, regardless of his guilt.
This is, of course, total nonsense. Black people are significantly more likely to be stopped by the police and more likely to experience the use of force at their hands. Yet we increasingly inhabit a political culture in which populists encourage their supporters to see themselves as victims of an out-of-touch elite that dismisses their “justified concerns” about a host of issues though apparently not including inequality in health or wealth.
Starmer was either too timid or too unimaginative to make this point. Meanwhile, sections of the right-ring media gleefully stoked up the righteous anger of every self-appointed British citizen.
Double standards
Yet if, on this occasion, Mr Farage believes rage is the appropriate response, it is worth recalling his reaction to the murder of Sarah Everard in 2021. Then, Farage advocated for calm, writing on social media that the public:
“…must not allow the tragic murder of a young woman turn into attacks on men and attacks on the police”.
Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, many in the media did not to see fit to remind him that his response to another appalling murder was considerably more restrained. On this occasion, even though the killing exposed major failings within policing, including entrenched misogyny.
Perhaps, however, this is exactly what we should expect from a man who once described Andrew Tate as an “important voice for men”. Let us not forget that Farage argued Tate’s messaging resonated with a generation of supposedly “emasculated” young men who felt demonised an anti-male, “woke” culture.
It is acceptable, it seems, for some groups to feel “rage”. It was acceptable for Tate’s followers. It was acceptable for the flag-waving crowds who descended on a police station in Southampton the other day.
I have asked before in these pages why Farage gets away with it.
For what it’s worth, I am asking again.
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